Music recommendation: Kikimora (Anatoly Liadov)

Anatoly Liadov didn’t write much for orchestra, but I’m very fond of the works he did create. In Slavic mythology, a Kikimora is a kind of dark female spirit. Liadov’s tone poem of the same name depicts her with both poignance and raucous energy. To my ears this piece feels spiritually akin to film music, because of its use of orchestral color and storytelling quality. What I love is not just the turbulence, but the haunting sadness of the opening.